Ti Top is a small island in Ha Long Bay with a steep side and a gentler side that ends in a flat sand beach. Tour boats stop here so you can swim or climb to the top for the view. The Ha Long Bay Management Board lists it on sightseeing route VHL2, the same route as Sung Sot Cave.
Vietnamese Wikipedia says the name comes from a visit: on 22 January 1962 President Ho Chi Minh came to the island with the Soviet cosmonaut Gherman Titov, and named it Ti Top to mark the trip. OpenStreetMap shows a memorial to Titov on the island.
The board's own description of the day trip says the climb to the top of Ti Top gives a 360-degree view down over the bay. The panorama at the top of this page was taken from up there.
Getting there
Ti Top is reached by boat. The board says the two common day routes leave from Ha Long International Cruise Port or Tuan Chau International Port, with ticket counters at both. Route VHL2, with Ti Top and Sung Sot, takes about 6 hours. Some overnight cruises also moor near Ti Top.
Measured in a straight line on map coordinates, the island is about 10.8 km from Ha Long International Cruise Port. The board puts the drive from Hanoi at about 1 hour 30 minutes on the Hanoi to Hai Phong expressway, about 2 hours from Noi Bai airport and about 45 minutes from Van Don airport.
Hours and fees
| Season | Hours on Ti Top |
|---|---|
| Summer, 16 April to 31 October | 7:30 AM to 5:30 PM |
| Winter, 1 November to 15 April | 7:30 AM to 5:00 PM |
Between 1 April and 31 October boats leave port from 5:00 AM and must be back by 8:00 PM. Between 1 November and 31 March they leave from 5:30 AM and return by 7:00 PM.
The fee is for the route, not the island alone:
| Ticket | Price |
|---|---|
| Route VHL2 day trip, adult, any nationality | VND 250,000 |
| Route VHL2, child aged 7 to under 16 (20% off) | VND 200,000 |
| Child under 7, or under 1.2 m tall | Free |
| Route 2 with one night on board (Ti Top among the mooring areas) | VND 550,000 |
| Route 2 with two nights on board | VND 750,000 |
VND 200,000 is our arithmetic: VND 250,000 less the board's 20% child discount. A foreign child aged 7 to 15 needs a passport for the discount. The overnight prices are the board's sightseeing fee only; the cruise itself is paid to the boat company.
Nearby
- Sung Sot Cave: about 2 km in a straight line, on the same VHL2 route.
- Thien Cung Cave: about 8.9 km in a straight line, on route VHL1, a separate ticket.
Questions travelers ask
Can I fit a Ha Long Bay day cruise into a short layover in Hanoi? A traveler with about a day between flights asked this on r/VietNam. One reply said a chartered boat is the only flexible option:
"It's only doable if you charter a boat - you can start and end whenever you like (but not after dark - needs special permit to stay in the water after sundown)."
u/MemoryLatter761 on r/VietNam
Another warned about the time lost at the pier:
"Traffic is one thing but even the boarding and off-boarding of these cruises is a chaos fest. Lots of sitting around with huge groups of people just waiting to be called."
u/MouseHouse444 on r/VietNam
